more on day 2

Here are more pictures. Will, the first picture is for you. It is of a Chinese apartment building. That is the closest thing I could find to the inner city! My guide did tell us that behind small shops are courtyards with small homes surrounding. Many of the homes do not have water access. He said that the people living in these homes are typically from different provinces-- everyone wants to live in Beijing.

The next group are from Tiananmen Square. It is the moon festival here, so there were tons of people out today. I tried to capture the crowd. There is a photo of a float used in a parade on October 1. They celebrated the 60th year of New China, China after communism. There is a picture of some soldiers and a row of buses used to bring police and soldiers to work that morning. Apparently crime is very low here. It could be because there are policemen and soldiers everywhere. Also, they kill murders according to the guide. Yesterday, we watched a suicide intervention outside my dad and Laurie's hotel room. A young girl was attempting to jump off the lower roof of our hotel. There were policemen and firemen. After about 45 minutes two policemen were able to sneak behind her and remover her from the roof. It was so sad. The girl was crying and screaming in Mandarin to what I guess was a negotiator. But thankfully, she was saved.